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Fig. 875. Mace head

XIVth century (?). London Museum

Fig. 876. Relief figure from the sleeping guards armed with a mace

Second half of the XIIIth century. From the Easter Sepulchre, Lincoln Cathedral

flanged head had also the advantage of lightness, so that the weapon could readily be recovered for a second blow after the first had been dealt. There is a mace head in the London Museum (Fig. 875) which might date from a period as early as the first quarter of the XIVth century; for almost its counterpart can be seen depicted as the weapon of one of the sleeping guards who are carved on what is known as the Easter Sepulchre in Lincoln Cathedral, a relief which is assigned to the latter half of the XIIIth century (Fig. 876). Another mace, in the collection of M. Charles Boissonnas of Geneva (Fig. 877), might safely be assigned to some period in the XIVth century; this latter is very like the example in the National Bavarian Museum of Munich (Fig. 878). With the advent of the XVth century certain maces are to be found which are exceptionally graceful in their outline and which balance perfectly in the hand. As the century advanced a compartment was fashioned for the hand, which was protected by a flattened disk at the pommel, and with a circular or faceted guard in the manner of the rondel dagger. There is a fine specimen of a mace in the Wallace Collection, No. 621 (Fig. 879), which is so constructed. Here it will be noted that the haft is hexagonal, its facets overlaid with strips of latten; the head is delicately fashioned, each flange shaped to an acute angle, small in proportion,